Page 16 of Vibes

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Iris says, her voice turning shrill and hitting an octave that hurts my nonexistent ears. “Are you telling me you’re selling hockey players—”

“Shh!”

“As sex toys?” Iris finishes, dropping her voice a little. “Is this a regular thing for you Cora? Did you go through the football and baseball teams too?”

“Iris,” Cora says, her voice tight, “let’s go in the back and talk.”

“For the love of God tell me you aren’t selling men as a side hustle,” Iris sighs.

“Shh!” Cora tries again, and at this point I hope everyone in the store heard them. It’s what she deserves for doing this to me. “Come on.”

My bag moves, and I can’t tell if they are talking or not as I bounce along in her purse. I wish Iris pulled me out and fisted me, but that might be a little much inside a sex shop. I personally think it would get the point across.

“Edmund!” Cora yells, “Watch the register.”

“Only if you take that damn doll with you,” comes the response. “Thing creeps me the fuck out.”

Doll?

Cora groans, a deeper noise than whenever Iris makes that sound. “I’ll leave it in the hall, but I can’t take it outside. It could pop or blow away.”

“Is that why you have it leashed?” There’s a distant scoff. “And you’re worried about your friend’s sex toys. You need to figure this out.”

“Not helping, Edmund,” she growls beneath her breath.

We move again, and I roll around in the bag. Iris seems to be bouncier, or it could be stairs. Stairs seem to cause lots of jostling in a bag. I learned that coming downstairs from Iris’s apartment today.

“Is the break room much better?” Iris asks, her voice muffled.

“It’s what we have,” Cora replies. “Now bring out our little buzz buzz friend.”

There’s a quick drop and thud, and I realize Iris plopped me down on something. There’s rustling, then fingers close around me and I know she’s grabbed me from behind.

The room is bright when she lifts me out, and Cora eyes me with amusement as Iris speaks. “Whatever you did, Cora, change him back. Fix. This.”

“I didn’t tell you to buy him,” Cora replies, wrinkling her nose. “And you used him? There’s no way I’m touching that.”

“Cora,” Iris groans.

She studies me with her head cocked to one side, the weird cyan hair of hers twisted back out of her face in two buns. It lets me see the clear amusement in her hazel eyes, which makes me despise her. There’s nothing funny about this.

“Can he talk like that?” Cora asks, still watching me.

“If I hit his button, yes.”

She snickers, shaking her head with amusement. I cannot fucking wait until I don’t have to see her ever again. “Turn him on. He shouldn’t be in danger of running out of battery.”

The thought never even occurred to me as Iris hits the button. I buzz to life, but unlike with my wallflower, I don’t have anything particularly kind to say to Cora.

She speaks first, crossing her arms with a sigh. “I’ve given this apology once already, but I am sorry you got tangled up in things, Lachlan. It was just supposed to be Flynn.”

Once already? With who?

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” The buzzing noise as I speak makes her snicker, and I wish I could do something about it. I’m not sure what, but something.

“The rules of the spell are absolute,” Cora continues, shrugging a shoulder as her gaze swivels to me. “I meant this to just be payback for Flynn, but, well, you guys got in the way.” She shakes her head, like getting cursed is really all my fault. “You have to give Iris a real apology, Lachlan. Not some bullshit to get yourself out of this mess. No sincerity, no humanity for you. And she will have to accept the apology, or you’re SOL.”

I groan. “What am I apologizing for?”